Some days you need a little color with your rainclouds. This is not a controversial opinion. Grey is fine. Grey has its place. But a pink cloud dropping tiny silver raindrops is, objectively, an improvement on the situation.
The Sapphire
Most people picture blue when they hear the word sapphire, and blue is indeed where sapphires are most famous. But here is the thing about sapphires: they come in almost every color of the rainbow. Pink, orange, green, yellow, cobalt, teal, purple, and everything in between. The only color corundum, the mineral that sapphires are made of, cannot produce is red, and that is only because red corundum has its own name entirely. It is called a ruby. Sapphires and rubies are the same mineral wearing different outfits depending on which trace elements happened to be present when the crystal formed.
The color of any sapphire is a record of its chemistry. Blue sapphires contain iron and titanium. Pink sapphires get their color from chromium, the same element responsible for the red in rubies, just in smaller amounts. Orange comes from a different combination of iron and chromium. Green from iron alone. Each color tells you something about the specific geological conditions that existed when that particular crystal grew, deep in the earth, over thousands of years, in a combination that will never be exactly repeated. You are wearing a tiny piece of geological history that also happens to be the color of a summer sky or a ripe tangerine or a forest after rain, depending on which one you choose.
Sapphire rates a 9 on the Mohs hardness scale, just below diamond, which makes it one of the most durable gemstones available for everyday wear.
The Piece
A round cloud shape sits at the center of each earring, its flat polished face holding a genuine cloud shaped sapphire cabochon in a simple prong setting, the stone glowing in whatever color you have chosen. The cloud shape is slightly domed at the top and softly scalloped at the edges the way a real cumulus cloud rounds and billows at its borders. From the bottom edge five strands of fine sterling silver chain fall in different lengths, each one ending in a small hand formed silver raindrop, the whole thing swaying gently when you move the way rain actually falls, not all at once but in its own time, each drop finding its own path down.
They are approximately three quarters of an inch across and drop about two inches from the ear wire, light enough to wear all day and cheerful enough to improve almost any weather.
Each pair is made to order just for you. Choose your sapphire color from the options above.
The Craftsmanship
- Earrings: approximately 0.75 inches across, 2 inch drop from ear wire
- Stones: genuine sapphire cabochons, color of your choice
- Material: sterling silver throughout
- Style: French wire dangle earrings
- Color options: tangerine orange, bubblegum pink, forest moss blue-green, cobalt blue, garnet red
- Edition: made to order, each pair unique
A Note from Tamara
I made these because I think rainclouds get an unfair reputation. Rain is good. Rain fills the ponds and waters the gardens and brings out the earthworms and makes everything smell like soil and possibility. A cloud with a genuinely beautiful colored stone in it and little silver raindrops falling from the bottom seemed like exactly the right way to rehabilitate the reputation of a rainy day. Pick your color. Wear your weather. Go outside anyway.
Shipping
Your clouds will be made to order just for you in my little studio in the New Hampshire woods. Please allow one to two weeks for them to be created. You will receive a tracking number by email so you can follow them on their journey to their new home.